I have an Elco EP-9.9 on my 20ft Encore Bentley pontoon. We live in a private “electric only” lake community. Our community wants to keep the lake as clean as possible, so all gas engines are prohibited.
I have to say that this motor is a workhorse. This was my first foray into electric. I just drop the motor in the water, turn the key and go. I don’t have to worry about gas, oil, fumes, noise, any of that stuff. It’s a great situation. And, so far,no maintenance whatsoever.
The Elco motor package was absolutely unbelievable. I think it’s probably the best motor out there. And I’ve had big boats with big engines and I really like this motor. There’s a lot of shallows, so this motor is perfect. I only have 100 ampere hour (Ah) batteries and I can pretty much run my boat for two days without charge. It’s a great motor, that is easy to operate and maintain. The outboard is also very light, so I lift it myself after we run the boat. Another positive benefit about electric is it’s quiet. You can talk while you’re underway. You don’t have that smoke, you don’t have that gas smell. You don’t have any of that aggravation you do with gas. After several years of use, the motor still looks brand new.
— Tom Strenk, Warminster, PA